Pros
Most people who work there are fantastic. Great pay, great offices, great resources.
Cons
When I first started working at RAND, the internal labor market worked really well. By 2020 (my last year), it was not working at all. RAND has grown a lot in the last decade, and a lot of aspects of it (especially the internal labor market) have not scaled well. There was also a push towards seemingly more "consulting-ish" (i.e. less traditional academic) work in the social policy divisions over the last few years. A LOT of people seemed to start doing HSOAC work as well, simply because that's where they could get coverage. A concerning number of great people (in the social policy divisions, at least) have left over the past 2-3 years. If you're a person who is fine just putting in the hours, not caring too much about the particular topics of your projects, and don't mind the anonymity and bureaucracy, RAND is a great place to work. And I don't mean that pejoratively; it really can be a great place, it just really depends on what you want.
